Why the star of the film "How the Steel Was Tempered" became a recluse: Natalia Saiko

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many viewers still remember this actress, although Natalia Saiko has not starred for more than twenty years. She appeared on the stage of the Taganka Theater together with Vladimir Vysotsky in Hamlet, where she played Ophelia, acted in films, including in the cult Soviet film How the Steel Was Tempered and in the film The Testament of Professor Dowell. The actress was in demand in the profession and is happy with her husband Yakov Bezrodny. But for many years now, Natalia Saiko prefers to lead a very closed lifestyle.

Conquest of the capital

Natalia Saiko grew up in Tallinn and in the eighth grade made the decision to enter a medical school in order to make life easier for her mother, who had worked as a hairdresser all her life. Mom, in general, approved the choice of her daughter, but first she advised Natalya to get a certificate, and only then study further.

The girl went to the ninth grade and at the same time a drama club appeared in their school. Natasha began to take part in school performances, later, together with the team, she went to Leningrad, where she saw the production of "Big Sister" at the BDT. She also watched the same performance in Tallinn, while she liked the play of Estonian actors much more.

And the head of the school circle once told Natalya that she needed to go to the theater in Moscow. She considered the girl very talented and predicted a great future for her. The schoolgirl's mother, hearing about Natasha's decision to become an actress, almost burst into tears, but let her go to the capital.

Natalya Saiko successfully passed the exams at the Shchukin School, but did not find herself on the list of those enrolled. I called my mother, all in tears, and she asked her Moscow friend to clarify the information directly at the school. It turned out that the girl was still accepted, just when compiling a list of future freshmen, Natalia's surname was simply missed.

Despite the fact that studies captured Natalia from the very first days, in Moscow the girl often cried. The huge city seemed to her alien and unfriendly in comparison with her native Tallinn. After graduating from college in 1970, the young actress was immediately accepted into the troupe of the Taganka Theater. She appeared on the renowned stage in Hamlet and Boris Godunov, played Natalia in Three Sisters and Sonya Gurvich in The Dawns Here Are Quiet.

At the same time, the actress began to actively act in films and embodied many vivid images on the screen, including Zina Aniskina in The Village Detective, Tonya Tumanova in How the Steel Was Tempered, Vera Komissarzhevskaya in the film I Am an Actress, Angelica Guy in Professor Dowell's Testament.

Unrealized dream

Natalia Saiko was married twice. The actress lived with her first husband for seven years, but she made the decision to divorce instantly, as soon as she learned about the betrayal. Later in her life, Yakov Bezrodny appeared, who since 1971 worked at the Taganka Theater as an assistant administrator. Young people sympathized with each other for a long time, but there was no question of any relationship between them. Only after Natalia Saiko divorced her husband, Yakov Bezrodny began to look after the young actress with bottomless eyes.

They played a modest wedding in a restaurant, and the actress still keeps her turquoise wedding dress. At first, the husband asked to leave him as a memory, but now she herself does not raise her hand to throw it away.

Natalia Saiko and Yakov Bezrodny lived, as they say, in perfect harmony. They had common interests and hobbies, friends were often in their house, including the most famous actors and directors. Natalya Petrovna always laid a large table with great pleasure, loved to regale guests with her own baked pie or other dishes.

But at the same time, for both, the absence of children remained an eternal pain. Even as a teenager, the actress was very cold, because of which she could not get pregnant. She and her husband fought with the disease for many years, the actress was treated by the best doctors in the country, her husband tirelessly drove Natalia to the doctors, again and again instilling in her hope for motherhood.

Even when Natalia Saiko was already completely desperate and suggested that Yakov Bezrodny take the baby from the orphanage, he told her not to give up and believe in the best. But she could not give birth to a child. Only a few years before his death, the actress's husband admitted: it was necessary to decide on adoption. But it was too late.

In recent years, Natalia Saiko's husband was seriously ill, the actress even had to leave the theater to take care of him. But it never occurred to her to complain. She fed him, washed him, carried him to the bathroom and to the restroom, even tore the ligaments on her leg, but Natalya Petrovna did everything to prolong the life of her beloved. In 2014, Yakov Bezrodny died, and the actress was left all alone.

Alone with loneliness

She still lives in her and her husband's three-room apartment in a house not far from the Taganka Theater. Maintains cleanliness in the house, does everything herself, does not complain about the lack of money or loneliness. The actress categorically refuses offers to act in films or return to the theater. Natalya Petrovna believes: it is not appropriate for actresses to play if their feet do not really obey. In her opinion, on the stage and in the cinema you need to fly. And the role of grandmothers does not attract her at all.

Since then, when her husband fell ill, Natalia Saiko has been leading a very closed life. At first, she could not leave her husband alone, devoting all the time to him. After that, she herself got used to her loneliness. She carefully keeps the collection of teapots, which was collected by her husband, and dreams of going to the Crimea or Sochi in her own car. She handles a car perfectly, and for more than forty years of driving experience, the actress has not had a single accident.

Natalia Saiko wants to live out her life with dignity and remain in the hearts of the audience that very young beauty with bottomless eyes, who once won their hearts with her beauty and talent.

Natalia Saiko could have played the role of Katya Tikhomirova in the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", but as a result, the director approved his wife, Vera Alentova, in the film. What other actors missed the chance to play in cult films of the Soviet era?